Common smoothhound shark on Texel island beach

This video from Jersey says about itself:

Common smooth hound (Mustelus mustelus)

19 July 2015

Chantelle Marie De Gruchy very kindly sent in this video of a Smooth Hound that she saw whilst diving St. Catherine’s breakwater.

The smooth hound is a species of shark found throughout the British Isles which can reach 4 foot in size! They typically eat small crustaceans and molluscs but occasionally take small fish.

Chantelle is currently studying for her master’s degree in Marine Environmental Management at the University of York.

Translated from Ecomare museum on Texel island in the Netherlands today:

Shark on the beach – 22-09-2015

A special find on the beach of De Cocksdorp on Texel. There was a common smoothhound on the sand. The female had been dead for a while when she washed up. The eyes were out and there was a really fishy smell. Yet Ecomare has kept the animal; it is not every day that a shark washes up on a Dutch beach. In recent years, there seem to be again more sharks in the Wadden Sea.

Rare

The last thirty years the number of common smoothhound sharks along the Dutch coast has increased. Other shark species at the same time have gone down. This shark species can get quite large, up to 1.65 meters. The shark near De Cocksdorp was 80 centimeters. Smoothhound sharks have flat molars and are harmless to people. They live close to the coast. Usually they swim close to the sea floor where they look for crabs, shellfish and fish. They occur in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and thus the North Sea and Wadden Sea. Along the Dutch coast they are rare.

Sharks in the Netherlands

In the North Sea you can find several species of sharks. The small-spotted catshark is the most common. Besides common smoothhound sharks also school sharks live there. Spiny dogfish is seen in some years as well. You can even encounter basking sharks, nursehounds, porbeagle sharks and Atlantic thresher sharks in the North Sea, but these are super rare.